(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Tom Pohrt. In addition to "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp," Mitchell includes the lesser-known "Abu Keer and Abu Seer." Mitchell delights in exaggeration and embroiders these already outrageous tales with extended descriptions of jewels and riches, clothing and food, sneaking in references to chocolate chip cookies to entice modern readers. Black-and-white line illustrations round out these retellings.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2007

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Quaker Prudence Crandall created a school for African American girls in largely white 1830s Connecticut. The school's short-lived history ended in violence. Alexander's and Nelson's sonnets, which take on the voices of individual students, create a portrait of a determined community of learners. Cooper's spacious landscapes ground the book, and his portraits have a quiet dignity and elegance.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2007

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton. Using child-friendly analogies, Hutchins moves from seconds through larger units of time. The lilting text is affectionate and upbeat. Denton's watercolors show children passing time both quietly and actively. A soothing, lyrical text, many small details in the art, and a final picture showing three friends tucked into their beds make this book a perfect way to end the day.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2007

(3) 1-3 Stepping Stone series. Illustrated by Matthew Trueman. With boundless enthusiasm, Kimmel imagines the boyhood of Marc Chagall in his late-nineteenth-century Russian village. Kimmel's Marc is at once unperceptive and sophisticated, sometimes sounding foolish and other times dispensing wisdom. Trueman's black-and-white line illustrations pay homage to Chagall's work while maintaining their own buoyant childlike quality. Newly independent readers will find a kindred spirit in the imaginative Marc. Reading list.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom

(2) K-3 Translated by Marianne Martens. Illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen. When Little Donkey and his mother shop for a birthday present for his friend, he selects a red kite. Loose pen-and-ink sketches capture Little Donkey's playfulness and his mother's mild nature, while the text's spare language spells out Little Donkey's dilemma: he wants to keep the kite. This friendly, honest tale of childhood covetousness is wrapped up with enormous affection.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2007

(2) 4-6 In this third book (The Convicts, The Cannibals), Tom earns his sea legs. The story opens with a storm at sea; slavery, betrayal, and murder further tantalize readers. The final twist, a deeply moral one, concerns how Tom is freed from the tortuous path that threatens to consume him. Lawrence's story includes colorful characters and rich language laced with inventive similes.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2008

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. This posthumous collection features twenty-three animal poems in free verse. Worth uses common language uncommonly, rich with sound sameness and repetition. Master cut-paper artist Jenkins matches the verbal surprises with his own visual revelations. Without background clutter, each double-page spread devotes itself to a single poem and image, impressive and regal in their cumulative effect.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2007

(2) PS The lonely couple who lost their Gingerbread Boy to the wily fox tries again, this time fashioning a girl. And off she goes, her red licorice hair ablaze on the oversize pages, chanting a variant of her brother's mantra. While Ernst's happy ending may be too sweet for tradition to bear, this Gingerbread Girl, to quote the fox, is one cute cookie.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2006

(3) YA Fourteen-year-old Isabelle is one of the lucky ones--a survivor of stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma. In her first-person narrative, Izzy explores her horrific cancer treatment, including six painful rounds of chemo. Although the novel concludes with a feel-good but unnecessary tidy-up, it contains lots of good humor (Izzy has an amiably sardonic edge) and a portrait of talent (Izzy is an intuitive artist).

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom

(2) 4-6 In 1965, nine-year-old Danny gets through the trauma of his older brother Beau's death, but his loss is so acute that he comes to believe a stray dog is his brother. Lawrence's straightforward yet metaphoric language convinces us that perhaps the dog is Beau, even as Lawrence portrays Danny's grieving parents' despair that they are losing a second son to delusions.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2006

(4) 4-6 Redsand introduces psychotherapist Frankl and his philosophy of logotherapy: that finding meaning in life can enable a person to survive even the worst conditions. This account resounds with the optimism that characterized Frankl's life despite his profound losses during the Holocaust. Well-captioned historical and personal photographs and documents flesh out this adulatory, unevenly written biography. Reading list, source notes. Ind.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom

(4) 4-6 Ten-year-old London thief Molly Abraham is sold as an indentured servant to an Orthodox Jewish New York family. Schwabach educates readers about Judaism as Molly learns about the faith; the author is at her best when contrasting Molly's situation with that of a neighboring black slave's. A glossary for Molly's obscure 1730s dialect is included, but readers may become irritated by the frequent need to stop reading and consult it.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom

(2) K-3 Colorfully homespun John and Martha think about how best to use their three wishes. Two wishes down, and they have gained only sausages (John's unintended wish)--and those are stuck to John's nose (Martha's unintended wish). Souhami keeps the tale spare and humorous. Readers will revel in the zesty final portrait of the happy couple toasting their ultimate good fortune.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007

(4) YA Compared to Bitton-Jackson's previous books about growing up during the Holocaust, this catalogue of her life in America in the early 1950s is somewhat tame. The narrative does have some raw emotional moments, but, in general, Elli Friedman (the author's birth name) worries less about life and death and more about matters of the heart, which gives the narrative a fairy-tale gloss.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom

(2) 4-6 Juli's mother commissions a lavish lace tablecloth for Juli's dowry. Even in 1933 Budapest, twelve-year-old bookish Juli, who narrates her own tale, sees options for herself that don't include marriage. With effective subtlety, Cheng chronicles the escalating tension between headstrong mother and daughter and gives this tale, unusual in time and setting, poignant relevance and credibility.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2005

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. Clinton tells the rousing story of the all-African American Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment, focusing on the heroic action of Sergeant William H. Carney. Carney braces his troops by bravely carrying the flag through battle despite being wounded. Evans portrays the proud regiment dressed in the rich blues of their Union uniforms. Reading list, timeline, websites.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2005

(2) YA This is a painful alternative to Holocaust narratives that accent the hope and play down the horrors. Witness to unthinkable random brutality, Hillman, frantic to believe that there is a reason for the suffering, asks: "God, what have we done that you have forsaken us?" Hillman writes matter-of-factly about it all. The book includes a few family photographs that Hillman hid throughout her ordeal.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2005

(2) PS Illustrated by Renata Liwska. Because he growls and doesn't "play nice," Russian orphan Nikolai hasn't been adopted yet; the art portrays him (and only him) as a bear. But Nikolai turns out to be the perfect child for one American couple, who feel "soft-bearish" and who know how to growl. Touches of humor in text and art keep this adoption tale from becoming cloying.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2005

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Betsy Lewin. A boy, notebook and pencil in hand, installs a cat in a director's chair and asks, "So, what's it like to be a cat?" The cat replies: "I'm very glad you asked me that." Lewin pictures Kuskin's appealing rhyming dialogue as an interview between inquisitive child and responsive yet independent cat. Large white pages afford space to capture the cat's many moods.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2005

(2) 4-6 In this vivid novel set in nineteenth-century England, narrator Tom Tin, fourteen, is charged with murder and taken in chains to a grounded prison ship for boys. Lawrence matches the inventiveness of his villains and martyrs with plot twists that include death and brutality aboard the ship and Tom's fateful trip on a ruined slaver bound for Australia.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005